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Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) explained how her state of Arkansas was positioning itself to bolster American efforts to gain advantages over China with regard to rare earth minerals. “Arkansas is stepping up in the critical minerals battle with China by offering access to one of the largest lithium reserves in North America,” CNBC’s Becky Quick said. “Companies like Exxon and Chevron are buying land in south Arkansas, where the state is on track to produce 15% of the world’s lithium demand. Joining us right now is Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Governor, thank you for joining us this morning — tell us a little bit about this lithium reserve, how long you’ve known about it and how long other companies have finally sat up and said, ‘OK, this is something we need to pay attention to, and we need to start investing.'” Sanders replied, “Well, it’s an exciting time in Arkansas, and certainly an exciting time for the lithium industry and Arkansas is prepared and ready to lead the charge in this space. We have a massive amount of lithium sitting right under our feet, and now the technology exists to extract it and do so in a way that is environmentally friendly, very different from the disruptive mining process that you’ve seen in other places to use lithium. With that industry growing, while lithium is used in everything from cell phone and car batteries to US military operations and equipment, GPS trackers, drones, ammunition, there’s so many things that lithium is now being used in that the demand is growing, and we have a vast amount. It’s sitting right under our feet, the ability to remove it, use it, and Arkansas is ready to lead and prepared to take it, not just from the extraction, but all the way upstream into manufacturing, so that we’re doing it on American soil, and we are not dependent on other countries for our lithium supply.” “The lithium is in salt water and brine that is there in the smack over formation aquifer,” Quick said. “When did it first come to light that you could get lithium out of the water this way?” “It’s certainly always been there,” Sanders replied. “But the the technology to actually extract it, and our ability to do so in a way that producers feel not only confident and comfortable, but have the ability to remove it from the ground without being very disruptive, is a newer part of the process, and now we have a royalty structure in place that landowners and companies have agreed to that is allowing us to start actually going after removing that lithium and putting it into play. That’s only happened within the last couple of years.” Quick said, “Yeah, and it happens at a time when this rare earths crisis is kind of reaching a new level. With China, ExxonMobil is not just talking about setting up a processing plant there. They’re investing in it at this point. When will that be up and running?” “Exxon, Chevron, Standard lithium, Albemarle Lanxess have all collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Arkansas over the last couple of years, preparing for this moment, getting land rights in place, getting facilities set up,” Sanders added. “And we’re moving full steam ahead. We have about 1,000 people in the lithium industry that will be in Arkansas over the next two days talking about what we have, how we can use it, and how Arkansas can be a global leader in lithium extraction and take it all the way into the manufacturing process.” Follow Jeff Poor on X @jeff_poor
